Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is considering ordering incremental B777X, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker confirmed to reporters during the 2022 Farnborough Air Show.
However, while Bloomberg quoted Al Baker as saying that the airline "will give them [Boeing] a bigger order", Reuters indicated that the executive said Qatar Airways "could" place such an order. He did not specify whether the airline was evaluating more passenger aircraft or freighters. Qatar Airways did not respond to ch-aviation's request for clarification.
The Qatari carrier has ten B777-8s, fourteen B777-8(F)s, and fifty B777-9s on firm order from the manufacturer. A further twenty of the passenger aircraft are due to be converted into freighters, although Qatar Airways has yet to disclose any details.
The airline is currently involved in a heated legal dispute with Airbus over the alleged airworthiness issues affecting its A350 fleet and is refusing to take any more A350-1000s until its complaints are addressed. This leaves the B777X as the frontrunner for the carrier's future large widebody fleet needs, even though the certification of the type has been significantly delayed and first deliveries are not planned before 2025. Besides the B777X, the airline also has firm orders for nineteen A350-1000s and twenty-three B787-9s.
Al Baker also confirmed that the carrier's January 2022 Memorandum of Understanding to add twenty-five B737-10s with options for 25 more has lapsed, as indicated by Airbus during court proceedings about its terminated A321-200neo order, a corollary of the A350 case. This leaves the airline with no new-generation narrowbody aircraft orders to renew its fleet of twenty-nine A320-200s and two A321-200s. However, unnamed sources told Reuters that the airline and Boeing have been in talks about reviving the lapsed commitment.
